Side Length
by Alissa Forigen
Summary: Alexandr, and his four friends are just a normal bunch of mutants, who go to college and have a completely normal life. Until a girl named Alia comes into it. Getting requests from several mutant groups to join and help control their powers, they find their normal lives being turned into a game of which side you'll take.


_Alexandr's_ _Hoštálek POV_

I walked through the streets, dancing and humming to my music. My next class was just down the road and after sitting in class taking a half hour's worth of notes and listening to the teacher, I would be able to get some sleep before my friend, Emil Burian, would meet me at a cafe for us to discuss yesterday's homework. To me, homework was nothing comparison to relationships, which I have a terrible problem with. I... funny I'm admitting this, but I am very picky on who I be friends with, and I judge people. I'm kinda a pessimist, and it runs in my family well.

I looked around to see if my class was anywhere close to me. It was still quite far, past a stoplight. I looked at the hazy vision of my class, then looked back down at my shoes. I don't know why, but sometimes I feel that I am the oldest in my family, as my parents, an older sister, and two younger twins are all very childish, I'm anti-social and pessimistic. My mom thinks I'm going through 'college depression', as when my oldest sister, Janica, was in college, she was like me. However, I don't think that's the case. I walk further down, coming to the first stoplight. It was green already, so I could walk. As I walked, I wondered why my family developed to the Slovakian lifestyle rather than a Czech one.

Though I am born in Slovakia, I never really liked it there as I liked it in the Czech Republic. I always felt, a part of a big puzzle, and in Slovakia, I never felt that way. And, so many people ask me why I can speak good English. Well, that's because I payed attention in English class and didn't slack off like Emil did. I would say he speaks more of a modified slang version of English. My sister, well, she lives in Russia, and probably forgot how to speak English. My twin sister and brother, they were born here in 'Merica, and they can speak English. Their names are Ivona and Felix, however, my sister and I call them Jacek, and Jocek.

As I strode closer to my class, I took I step back. Out of no where, a car came speeding by me, swerving, and taking a dear turn into my class doors. The car never made it far into my class. The driver came out, about to take off when he saw me, running towards the car. I went to him to check on whether he was okay or not. The driver looked me in the eye, his eyes looked a cold grey, as if winter got a hold of him before it actually came. His hair was a dark coffee brown, and was messy and pulled back. His skin looked more like caramel than an actual colour, as in my lifetime, I haven't really met many people with a darker skin colour than mine, which was pale enough to look as if I camouflaged with snow.

"S-Sir, are you hurt?" I asked curiously, looking cautiously, however, concerned at the man. His bruised face quickly turned to a bitter one, and I took two steps back, now closer to a tree than his car. He looked almost as if he was going to pull a blade or gun on me and threaten me to go away. I was a little frightened, however, he kind of opened up to me, "I'm fine boy. Now scurry off." I shook my head quickly and got closer to the man than before. I thought twice about what I was doing, even though I still did it. I am stupid.

"Well, sir, you crashed into my class and I need to go." I said, stopping at where I was. He looked me in the eye for the second time, however, this time I was slightly more confident. But, he pushed me into his car, and yelled, "I said I'm fine, you little boy! Now get lost!" I hit the car hard, and fell to the floor. I could see so many people around the trees surrounding the class. I rubbed my back and got up, in a little shock from what had happened. The man had stormed through the crowds, and only I was left here. I heard the sound of alarms ringing in my ears and I looked around. Now, I was seeing hazy visions of what some of the people were thinking. I closed my eyes quickly and shook my head, hoping to get those visions out and stop reading what people are thinking.

* * *

We were forced not to have class by the police after the collision. They had found the injured man a few blocks away. I decided to stay out because I didn't want to be involved with police. I used to do that in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. If anything happened, I just lie that I was only a bystander or I say nothing at all. Being mixed up with police isn't something I'd like to do anytime in my life. I had left the scene and head towards the cafe I was supposed to meet up with Emil at. I got into the cafe a few minutes past when he asked us to meet up, and I looked around the tables to see if I could catch him somewhere. I stood there looking for a bit before seeing his oddly ginger hair at a table quite isolated. I ran over to him and jumped into my seat.

"How was class~?"

"We didn't have class today. A car crash. Kinda bummed though."

"Aw, Aleks it'll be fine. You'll make it up." I kinda slumped in my chair when he said that. I frowned and shrugged my shoulders. Then, he added, "And plus, ye don't have class. So."

"So, what? I love school. Homework is easy, and ja..." I responded, his face going into a face as if he didn't like what I had said, then he shrugged if off and took out the sheet we needed to study in pairs. Luckily, we got to choose. The sheet showed a picture frame with a girl inside, burning and the smoke looked semi red. We were supposed to figure out what it's supposed to mean using the sentences we were given. He stared at it alongside me for a bit. Obviously it was advertising something for preventing fires, however, I couldn't think of what. The teacher said straight off the bat that it wasn't smoke alarms or detectors. I gave an idea, "... Maybe it's like... maybe it's like some type of fireproof frame and case... or something like that..." We both went silent.

"Ja, I'm thinkin' that too. But why a name like, 'Argosepiel'? That sounds kinda weird." Emil responded. I nodded silently. I had a hazy vision of what the product could look like. I made a face before jumping back to reality. I could hear Emil giggling under his breath. "It's funny, that when ja visualize stuff, ye tend to make yer eye' turn an ice colour. Like, a blue ice."

I frowned at him, and shook my head. _Seriously_ , I thought to myself. He started to laugh loudly, and seemed as if he was having a laugh attack. I described him as having it all the time, as he said laugh attacks are when you laugh until you cough of laughter. Crying is only a minor symptom. I could see tears shedding from his eyes, as he forced himself to stop crying. "Seriously, Emil, since when did you start suffering from long-term laugh attack disease? I've only seen one person other than you suffer from it and that is Jacek. Did you get contaminated, or what?"

"Na, Aleks. I think it runs aroun' in my family. Like pessimism in yer." He said, picking up a smile from it. I shook my head in somewhat of an agreement. I was about to get up after I told him I'd like to order something, when a woman, probably Goldilocks, came by and sat down. I stared into her green ivy eyes. I felt as if I could see branches wrapped with vines in her eyes. They were extremely green. Emil looked puzzled at her appearance and the fact that she sat down here. I glared into her eyes, as she could obviously see I wasn't very happy. "Well hello, Alexandr Hoštálek and Emil Burian. My name is Alia Morganette. I heard you class got cancelled, Alexandr."

I was in a little shock. She knew my first _and_ last name. Even one of my other friends, Oleg Wawra, still couldn't pronounce my last name, better yet, spell it. I could see Emil breathing heavily, his glare was as if he had seen something that wasn't there, and was obviously very puzzled. After a bit of silence, he opened his mouth, "W-Who are ja? An' how do ye know us?" Only one thing came to mind for me, _she must have been stalking us for the past few weeks_ , I thought. I stayed silent, as I am anti-social to people who I don't know as well. I let Emil do the talking.

"Well, I know you two because of school. I go to a school named Bayville High, and I have heard about you two everywhere." She responded. I glared at her, with the fact that she is surely lying in my eyes. Emil smirked and lay back in his chair, stretching his two arms out a little, and making more of a head rest with his hands. "So, yev been stalkin' us? 'Cause that's what I'm hearin'." I giggled a little at how we think so alike, and it seems she had caught on to the fact that I haven't been talking.

"So, Alexandr, I need to ask you a question." I hesitated a little, looking at her kinda confused and rushed. I didn't like talking to someone who seemed as if they stalked us, and now she's asking me a question. I put my head down, trying to see if could access her mind, however, trying became a problem and I started to get a headache. I quickly got myself out of there, with no information other than she is not dead. I was screwed at this point. I would hope that Emil would bail me out of this, as he usually does. "And, Emil, please let him say this. How about I give you an offer. An offer, to join my team. We can help you with getting to the full potential of your powers, and mastering them."

Emil laughed out, hard as usual. The woman looked at him, as if he was troubling her. She looked very concerned at the way he was laughing and he seemed to stop, with a wide grin on his face. "Yer askin' him to find the full potential of his power? Can't he find it on his own?-" Emil slammed his fist against the table, facing the woman closer than before. "-for you to ask this is disappointin'. Ye obviously don't know who we are, more importantly, Aleks. There's really only one answer- no."

The lights on signs and inside the cafe flickered before going off. The awful smell of mercury was quite heavy and I cringed a little. Smoke smelling like mercury from light bulbs filled the room, and Emil grabbed my hand and ran out, both of us running to an alley way. He looked back at the cafe, realizing that something had probably caught on fire, as now it was starting to engulf in flames. I watched as people ran out and the cafe started to crumble. "Great escape plan, Emil. Now who's going to pay the bail fees?"

"Definitely not me, of course. I needed to, though. She would either keep bribin' ja or attack and reveal another person. We coulda got hurt, Aleks! Plus, she's a mutant like us, an' has a force out there." He responded. I nodded in silence, however, I kept watching as soon, that cafe had disappeared. It was just a pile of rubble which was left there. A lot of people stood around watching the rubble. I double checked for any mind presences that were still in the rubble. Only one, that was of the accountant. _She is still alive under there_ , I thought before Emil dragged me further into the alley way. "Aleks, we gotta go before the police get here. Or we'll be in quite some mess."

I nodded in agreement.

* * *

When I got to my house, which I was still with Emil, I walked in and waiting for me was Jacek and Jocek. I frowned and slumped a little. "Aw, come on, Aleks. Not even gonna say, 'hi'?" They asked me. Sometimes I hated having younger twin siblings. I shook my head as I took off my shoes and headed to my room quickly, alongside Emil. My siblings didn't follow me, they probably got bored of me not saying anything to them. I liked talking to Janica rather than those two. I haven't talked to her in a year or two now. I felt my phone vibrate and I looked at it. There was a message from another friend, Tuomo Yrjölä. I quickly viewed it.

 **Tuomo:** **Our class is cancelled but we have to hand in our assignment. How do we do that?**

I frowned. I finished and handed in my assignment last week, so I wasn't sure. I typed back.

 **Aleks: I'm not sure. Maybe give it in to the front desk of the main building and tell them who you are and which class. Sorry!**

Emil had seemingly made himself at home, as he cuddled with one of my pillows. I laughed at him. "What are ja laughin' at? I'm just cold, an' yer room is a 'frigerator."

"I know, I want it to be. I feel hot all the time."

"Well, I feel cold! Turn the heat up!" I laughed even more, as he shivered. He snuggled with my pillow more and I pushed him a little, just making him groan. I eventually went into his bag to hack his phone and tease him even more. "Ey! What are ja doin' in my bag? Gonna steal some shit?"

"Yeah." I responded. "Your phone and I'm gonna hack it. I'm a great hacker Emil."

"Ya, right. Yer definitely a beautiful hacker. I'm gonna give it to ja, ye have courage."

I smiled as I played around with the password a bit. Until I finally unlocked it. I marked down his password in the notes section of my phone. "So your password is 9-3-4-4-5-1-3-6-2-8? Nice password."

He jumped immediately and grabbed the phone back. He looked at his unlocked phone and was close to cursing at me. Before he realized he had given me his number and I had given mine to him. "Oh. Okay, yeah sure. Ye can use my phone, just don't call Jannie. She's a grouch to me."

I nodded. I quickly realized we still needed to do our homework, so I looked for the sheet in his bag. "Emil, where's the homework sheet?" He smiled and took it out of his back pocket of his pants. I frowned at him as he gave it to me. "Really, are you kidding me Emil."

"I had to save the sheet, and my front pockets were too small. C'mon Aleks! I saved it!" I frowned a little and slumped. Showing that I wasn't very impressed and obviously, I was kinda amused at the fact that now his accent was actually bothering me. I quickly got back into reality and we started to talk about the advertisement, and what it meant. We eventually came to a conclusion and we answered the seven questions given. Afterwards, I had something to eat with Emil, and our day was going fine from then on. Until our doorbell rang. I ran to Jacek's and Jocek's room to see who was there but I didn't find a car. _Who is it?_ , I quickly tried to sense the presence, however, The front door and all the objects in the house were starting to confuse my mind. I quickly got myself out, and I stepped down a few steps. My mom opened the door. It was Larion Borisovich Nizamutdinov, my last friend.

I sighed of relief that it was only him. I double checked his presence and I was correct. My mom greeted him and I allowed him to come upstairs. "Nice you coming now, and today." He shrugged his shoulders, tying his jacket around his waist. He walked up the stairs alongside me, and we went inside my room, him quite surprised to find that Emil was here already. He raised an eyebrow and said, "So Emi, you made it here before me I see. I'll beat you next time."

I could tell that he was joking but at the same time it didn't sound like it. Emil plopped his head into one of my other pillows and wrapped up in my sheets. I laughed and shook my head. "Emil, are you kidding me? My sheets too? I gotta wash these before I sleep in 'em." He raised his head, a large grin across his face, until Larion brought up something troubling, "Did you guys hear about the cafe that caved in? People say they don't know what caused it, but most likely a terror attack from mutants." I looked back at Emil, who's grinning face had turned into a nightmare-ish one.

"Y-Yeah... about that..." I said, looking down at the ground. If we told Larion he'd be surprised but he couldn't handle secrets. Especially if the secrets risked our lives or well-being, or innocence. He looked at me concerned. "Well... what's wrong? Wait, don't tell me..."

"Ja, it was my fault. Don't worry Lars, we won't kill ja." Emil said, keeping Larion in a still position. I looked at him, starting to read his mind out of curiosity, however, only bad results showed up. "Wait-", he started. "-so, you two destroyed a tiny cafe?" I froze like a statue and my body felt cold. I felt like I had died there. "I... I-I'm so sorry, Lars. I mean, we're really sorry."

In a few moments, his body had turned pale and he was backed into a corner. He started to shake violently, and sweat. He opened his mouth and said, "D-Do you know how many you killed... Emil?"

We were screwed.


End file.
